Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to products and methods including kale as a cancer chemopreventative and/or chemotherapeutic agent. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to chemopreventative and/or chemotherapeutic compositions which include juiced kale, which is capable of killing and/or inducing apoptosis of hyperproliferative cells, including cancerous and precancerous cells.
Background of Related Art
The war on cancer, which began in 1971, continues with few drugs that selectively kill tumor cells despite the wide array of molecular targets. Tumor cells' astounding adaptability explains much of the poor performance of some of the current therapies. Drugs designed to inactivate certain receptor tyrosine kinases have a brief success that is usually followed by the development of drug resistance. Similarly, drugs designed to induce enough DNA damage to trigger apoptosis are effective until the genes encoding signaling proteins required for cell death become silenced or mutated. Multi-drug resistance can also occur if tumor cells increase their expression of certain ABC transporters in the plasma membrane. Genetically engineered viruses for virotherapy and tumor vaccines designed to enable MHC class I molecules to present tumor antigens to immune cells have shown efficacy in animal studies, yet few such therapies have been tested in humans in large numbers. Drug cocktails are more effective, but may worsen side effects and the composition must be adjusted to stay ahead of drug resistance. Adaptation is an emergent property of the cooperation among heterogeneous tumor cells and between tumor cells and stromal cells. The battle raging between clinicians and tumor cells is an arms race with escalating costs and proportionally small decreases in human suffering.
Humans have been gathering and archiving knowledge of medicinal plants for tens of thousands of years. Natural products research provides society with untold numbers of life saving drugs. Several chemotherapies have been developed from plants, e.g. paclitaxel, vincristine, and irinotecan. The treatment of many cellular disorders, for example, tumors, and other hyperproliferative diseases, may involve the systemic use of therapeutic agents. These agents may exert their activity in a variety of ways. In many, if not most instances, the therapeutic agent may not address the abnormal cell specifically, but rather tends to exert its effectiveness systemically across all cells. Systemic administration may therefore expose both abnormal cells and healthy, normal cells to the effects of the therapeutic agent. Although potentially effective therapeutically against the abnormal cells, systemic administration of the therapeutic effect may be detrimental or cause detrimental side effects to the normal healthy cells. This may result in a smaller amount of the intended dosage of the therapeutic agent reaching and addressing the abnormal cells or tumor. In addition, a greater amount of the intended dosage of the therapeutic agent may reach and address the normal healthy cells. Systemic delivery of therapeutic agents may hinder the dosing parameters from being maximized because of the potentially harmful side effects. In addition, the detrimental effect to the normal healthy cells may weaken and/or cause a decrease in population numbers of the healthy cells thereby decreasing the ability of the healthy cells to fight the proliferation of the abnormal cells.
For example, anti-neoplastic agents may be cytotoxic. The anti-neoplastic agents may exert their cytotoxic activity in a variety of ways, sometimes interfering with a cellular function essential for the replication and/or viability of the cell. Many anti-neoplastic agents may be administered systemically and may not be designed specifically to attack the abnormal cells only, but rather may be designed to exert their effectiveness due to the more rapid proliferation of the abnormal cell, as compared to normal healthy cells. While many organs of the body of a mammalian host regenerate cells rather slowly, there may also be other organs, particularly bone marrow, which involve rapid proliferation of stem cells. Therefore, anti-neoplastic agents may not only affect the slowly regenerating cells detrimentally, but may also have a particularly pernicious effect on bone marrow production and the immune system.
Despite the possible disadvantages and side effects of employing the systemic use of therapeutic agents, this method has found extensive application because the agents may have provided some positive results. However, there remains a substantial interest in being able to employ therapeutic agents in a manner which is less systemic, i.e., directed more specifically toward the abnormal cells, while simultaneously protecting sensitive normal cells, in the vicinity of and distant from the site of the abnormal cells. In addition, there remains a need for therapeutic compositions which are directed more specifically toward the abnormal cells while simultaneously promoting proliferation of the normal healthy cells, in the vicinity of and/or distant from the site of abnormal cells.